GTA 5 video mocks Google’s self-driving car

Google wants autonomous cars to make driving safer, so we doubt it will look too kindly on a mock news video made using Grand Theft Auto 5.

The video created by YouTuber Pizzaforbreakfast sets itself up as a ‘first look’ news piece looking at Google’s self-driving car, which pulls up in front of the news reporter. It was filmed using the latest installment of Rockstar’s crime-’em-up.

The narrator opens with: “The future is now and it comes in the shape of this little round bubble of a car. Google invited us to be among the first outsiders to ride in their prototype self-driving car – a ride like no other.”

At this point we see the autonomous car drive into the back of another car at speed, run down groups of pedestrians miding their own business on the pavement (sidewalk to our US cousins) and into oncoming traffic on a motorway (highway).

Obviously the video is ridiculously hyperbolic but the real-world Google prototypes have got into trouble a few times. In fact, there have been a number of crashes but all were the fault of other vehicles.

Until the 14th of February 2016, that is, when a Lexus SUV fitted with Google’s self-driving system crashed into a bus at low speed. In the car’s defence, it was reportedly travelling at 2mph while the bus was doing 15mph.

Google has racked up around 1.45-million miles in driving without an at-fault crash so perhaps it’s too soon to give up on an autonomous future, but the video – as jokey as it is – highlights the fact there’s a long way to go before humans will hang up their driving gloves.